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article was first published in THEATRE RESEARCH INTERNATIONAL,
Autumn, 2000 (Vol. 25, No. 3 pp. 266-275). It's fairly long,
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The Grand-Guignol: Aspects of Theory and Practice

by Richard J. Hand & Michael Wilson

Introduction
The Théâtre du Grand-Guignol in Paris (1897-1962)
achieved a legendary reputation as the ‘Theatre of
Horror’, a venue displaying such explicit violence
and blood-curdling terror that a resident doctor was employed
to treat the numerous spectators who fainted each night.
Indeed, the phrase ‘grand-guignolesque’ has
entered the language to describe any display of heightened,
remorseless horror. Such is the myth of the Grand-Guignol:
the reality is subtler and far more complex.

An in-depth analysis of the Grand-Guignol reveals a theatre
that presented an extraordinary repertoire of short plays.
An evening’s entertainment would consist of several
plays interspersing trademark ‘horror’ drama
with comedies in the tradition of French social satire.
The plays are exemplary works of one or two-act drama demonstrating
a masterful control of dramatic pace and concision, and
requiring an innovative use of stage technologies, and an
ensemble of highly versatile and disciplined performers.

The
Grand-Guignol has a unique place in the history of popular
theatre defined and created by the vigorous combination
of its location and architecture, its repertoire and stagecraft,
its publicity and myth. Its reputation as the Theatre of
Horror certainly put it on the tourist trail and made some
entrepreneurs their fortunes but can only have been detrimental
to any serious evaluation of its place in theatre history.

The
Grand-Guignol is a neglected theatrical tradition with an
incalculable, yet tangible, impact on other dramatic and
cinematic genres. Particularly remarkable is its use of–and
influence on–other forms. This is evident in the way
in which it consolidated nineteenth-century melodrama (especially
the crime genre of the Boulevard du Temple theatres), reinventing
it for the twentieth century. Furthermore, it drew on the
avant-garde methods of naturalism and comédies rosses,
the honed simplicity of symbolism, the mood and style of
expressionism and even the subversive violence of surrealism.
Ultimately, it would go on to determine the stagecraft and
pacing of subsequent suspense drama and a broad range of
films of the horror and thriller genres. This is without
mentioning its influence on broader popular culture from
fiction and comics to radio and television drama.

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This site is brought to you by Thrillpeddlers, a San Francisco-based theatre company which has been translating
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